11/17/2017

National Theater Live "Follies": But Wait, There's More

The Cast of "Follies"(photo: National Theatre Live)

It was a typical winter evening in Boston when the
Colonial Theater opened its run of a new Broadway-bound musical on
February 1971, in what was then the common practice of trying out a
new work in a theater-loving city (like Boston, Philadelphia,
Washington or Toronto). It was to be the first time the public would
be able to see Producer Hal Prince's Follies, with Music and
Lyrics by Stephen Sondheim and Book by the late James Goldman. Since
it was to be a lengthy tinkering and tweaking period of a month, many
theater buffs did the typical routine of seeing a show in its first
week of performances, and (if it had promise) in the final week of
the show before its move to the Great White Way. Many a straight play
or musical would, in its last week or so, prove to be unrecognizable
from the production first seen right after opening. It could be a
thrilling and indescribably communal experience not unlike giving
birth (or so they say who have done so). In the case of Follies,
(first called The Girls Upstairs, but changed by Prince
who preferred the wordplay suggested by the title referencing not
only the former Zeigfeld-like “Weissman Girls” but also the
follies of several of its characters), it was to be a watershed in
musical theater history. In his seminal book about the evolution of
Follies written by the show's gofer, Ted Chapin (now President
of the Rodgers and Hammerstein Organization), Everything Was
Possible (a title taken from the lines “everything was
possible and nothing made sense”) outlines how the late inclusion
of the entire sequence of “Loveland” songs, to be described
below, dramatically changed the show (and perhaps musical theater in
general) forever. Though it was a financial flop (Such costumes!
Such a set! So many performers!) it was beloved by true aficionados
of the form. Years later, there would be more tinkering and tweaking,
leading to ever greater successes, culminating in the National
Theatre Live HD broadcast of its current version, which defies
description; so let's describe it.

"Beautiful Girls" from "Follies"(photo: National Theatre Live)

The year is 1971; the place: the venerable (but now
vulnerable) Weissman Theater, about to be torn down to make way for
an office building. Dimitri Weissman (an elegantly suave Gary
Raymond) has invited all the living “girls” from his annual
“Follies” to share and to celebrate those bygone productions.
Those women include Sally Durant (a luminous Imelda Staunton) and
Phyllis Rogers (a brilliantly brittle Janie Dee) and their respective
husbands, traveling salesman Buddy Plummer (a captivating Peter
Forbes) and successful ex-politician Benjamin Stone (a heartbreaking
Philip Quast), each shadowed eerily by their former ghosts, which
becomes evident in the first song, Beautiful Girls, as the
ladies descend the no-longer grand staircase, beautifully sung by
Roscoe (Bruce Graham) then and now. Before the night is over, each
of the “girls” will get a follow spot solo or two. And each one
will assure you it's your favorite turn, that is, until the next one.
In this virtually plotless work, there are so many stellar solos
you'd think you were in Sondheim heaven. Right after Staunton tears
us apart with the bleakness of In Buddy's Eyes, you're hit by
the trio of Rain on the Roof (the novelty number by the
dancing duo the "Whitmans", Billy Boyle and Norma Atallah), Ah,
Paris! by the fading chanteuse Solange (Geraldine Fitzgerald)
and the show-stopping Broadway Baby by Hattie (the mesmerizing Di Botcher). Then there's Quast's
painfully bare The Road You Didn't Take (“the Ben you'll never be, who remembers him?”),
followed by the courageous mirror number, Who's That Woman?
defiantly delivered by Stella (Dawn Hope) and the “Follies
girls”, and the incredibly powerful I'm Still Here dished
out by Carlotta (Tracie Bennett) with all the withering
world-weariness you could imagine. And let's not forget the
harrowing and plaintive duo Too Many Mornings by Quast and
Staunton, nor the regretful The Right Girl by Forbes, not to
mention the hauntingly lovely duet One Last Kiss by Josephine
Barstow as Heidi and Alison Langer as her younger self (“all things
beautiful must die”), and the pitch-perfect chill of Dee's Could
I Leave You? (“Guess!”).

Imelda Staunton in "Follies"(photo: National Theatre Live)

But wait; there's more. Just as old wounds are revealed
and painful regrets are laid bare, the surreal “Loveland” sequence
(introduced at the end of the original Boston try-out) delves deeper
into the remains of the psyches of the four principals in the form of
their earlier selves, Young Sally (Alex Young), Young Phyllis (Zizi Strallen),
Young Ben (Adam Rhys-Charles) and Young Buddy (Fred Haig), each
spot-on, in the contrapuntal You're Gonna Love Tomorrow/Love Will See Us Through, followed by the the
true follies of Buddy (The God-Why-Don't-You-Love Me Blues, never
better performed), Sally (with her chillingly desperate Losing My
Mind), Phyllis (with her self-deprecating The Story of Lucy
and Jessie), and, ultimately, Ben (with his achingly real
breakdown, Live, Laugh, Love). Has there ever been a more
glorious score, full of pastiches as homages to, among other
composers, the work of Cole Porter, Harold Arlen, Romberg and Friml,
Noel Coward, Jerome Kern and the Gershwins?

And has this ravishing score ever been better heard and
felt? Rarely has perfect casting been so crucially evident, from the
vocal power to the amazing American dialect (overseen by Dialect
Coach Penny Dyer) evidenced by this pluperfect cast (including an
Australian, Forbes). And it's gorgeous to see as well, from the
magnificent costumes (overseen by Irene Bohan) to the extraordinary
revolving set by Designer Vicki Mortimer to the brilliant Lighting
Design by Paule Constable to the exquisite Sound Design by Paul
Groothuis. All, of course, was in the precise hands of Director
Dominic Cooke and Choreographer Bill Deamer. Even the
orchestrations, by Jonathan Tunick with Josh Clayton (including the
use of a honky-tonk piano playing some numbers cut early in the show
in Boston, such as Carlotta's Can That Boy Foxtrot) are
cleverly effective. Last, but certainly not least, there is the
wondrous rendition of that score by Music Director Nigel Lilley and
his orchestra of twenty-one musicians. (That number, coupled with
the reality of a cast of thirty-seven, tells you why this show
doesn't get produced more often).

"Who's That Woman" from "Follies"(photo: National Theatre Live)

The only complaint one might register with this whole
production is that it's perhaps too perfect and might deter other
talents from future versions and visions of their own. One could pick
a nit here or there (sometimes the lighting was too dim or the
revolving stage used too often?) but in the end this was close to
definitive, the ultimate definition of the word “class”. A show
like Follies demands reinvention by its very complexities,
and defies its own lyric: no, not all beautiful things must die.